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The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Reno was idled for a year because federal prosecutors refused to take the agents’ cases, a Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found.

But Reno is not the only one.

The ATF office in Yuma, Arizona, near the border of Mexico and California, stands empty after the agents moved away or quit, allegedly, because federal prosecutors would not take their cases, an ongoing RGJ investigation found.

“They closed the ATF office down after some of the agents got frustrated that their cases were not getting prosecuted,” said Ron Gissendaner, a manager at Sprague’s Sports in Yuma.

As a federal firearms licensed gun dealer, Gissendaner said he and his staff worked closely with the Yuma ATF agents for years, adding: “We want to sell firearms to the good guys, not the bad guys.”

Gissendaner said the ATF agents had an impact in the town in the fight to stop firearms trafficking across the border but gave up and left. He said one of the agents quit the agency and went to work for a local law enforcement agency in another state.

“It was stressful work and then it gets thrown out and the guy walks free,” Gissendaner said. The prosecutors were “letting somebody they had a full case against go and it doesn’t even get a chance to go before a judge and jury.”

He said the lack of ATF agents in Yuma makes it more difficult to report suspicious activity involving guns.

“We’re only 40 miles from the border but we now have to go to Phoenix, which is three hours away.”

ATF Special Agent Tom Mangan, spokesman for the Phoenix Field office, said the Yuma site was closed because “it wasn’t busy.”

“It was basically a reallocation of resources,” he said. “It had nothing to do with a rift with the U.S. Attorney’s office.”

Messages left with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Phoenix were not immediately returned.

The Reno Gazette-Journal reported last week that the head of the Reno U.S. Attorney’s office sent a letter to local ATF agents on Sept. 29, 2011 saying they would not prosecute their cases until some unidentified management issues are resolved.

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At least three ATF firearms cases were dismissed by Reno prosecutors soon after the letter was sent. One agent said in a transfer letter that he wanted a new post because they were not able to do their jobs — fighting violent crimes through undercover work.

The Reno problems are being reviewed by the Justice Department’s office of Legislative Affairs, according to a letter sent to Sen. Chuck Grassley. He had written to the two agencies involved in the Reno problems seeking answers.

One high-profile case that was turned down by the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s office involved a man who had purchased and transported hundreds of inert grenade hulls, pins and other materials to Mexico, according to an Oct. 12, 2011, letter obtained by the RGJ, written by Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Jean Baptiste Kingery was assembling the grenades in Mexico and teaching people how to build machine guns for drug cartels, the letter said. ATF agents took Kingery into custody and he “made a full and detailed confession,” the letter said. But federal prosecutors refused to charge Kingery.

One of the ATF agents “practically begged the assigned prosecutor” to arrest Kingery, Luciano Cerasi, associate general counsel for the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association said in an Aug. 31, 2011 letter to Grassley.

“Instead, USA-AZ ordered Mr. Kingery’s release, allowing him to return to Mexico to continue arming the Sinaloa and La Familia drug cartels with military-type weapons and grenades,” said the congressmen, who were on an oversight committee investigating the botched Justice Department Fast and Furious operation in Arizona.

Kingery was later arrested by Mexican authorities on charges that he smuggled in grenade parts, according to published reports.

While the Kingery case was mentioned in the Fast and Furious investigation by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, he said in his report released last week that it’s being handled as a separate issue.

“We plan to issue a separate report on at least one other ATF investigation that involves an individual suspected of transporting grenade components into Mexico, converting them into live grenades, and then supplying them to drug cartels,” Horowitz said.

Robert Storch, a spokesman for that office, said he could not confirm or deny that they are conducting an investigation into Kingery. But Beth Levine, a spokeswoman for Grassley, said an inspector general’s investigation is ongoing.